Could there be a deadly, flesh eating bacteria here in the Tampa Bay area?
She came to Clearwater for a family vacation. But what she took home changed her family forever.
It’s called necrotizing fascitis, a flesh eating disease that took her life.
Carol Martin loved racing. Her husband, Richard, says that’s why they were in the Tampa Bay area.
“She loved going down to the racetrack. Every year, she couldn’t wait to get to Florida to be there, you know,” Richard Martin said.
As they normally do, they stayed at the Days Inn on Gulf-to-Bay Boulevard.
Richard says Carol even spent some time relaxing in the hotel hot tub.
But when they got home to Indianapolis, Richard says she found an unusual sore.
“She had like a pimple come up on her right butt cheek. She said it was kind of painful,” he said.
After two doctor visits and various antibiotics, he says the sore continued to grow.
“They finally decided to do a biopsy of the area after the third trip. That’s when they found out it was the flesh eating virus, bacteria,” he explained.
Carol was rushed into surgery and spent 16 days in the ICU.
Then just days after being released, the virus was too much for Carol’s body. She died at home.
Richard isn’t 100 percent sure where she got it. However, he suspects it was from the hotel hot tub.
“My thing is nobody else got it, the flesh eating bacteria. No one else got it but she was the only one who got in the hot tub,” Richard said.
News Channel 8 reached to the Days Inn parent company, Wyndam Hotels, for comment. But so far, no comment from the company.
